After the End
by callalili
Summary: Revan and Carth, stargazing and romance. What could be better? Except for plot twists, that is.


Revan had always loved the stars.

She had come to the Jedi Academy as a young girl, no more than four or five—young enough to be homesick, old enough to be too proud to show it—and she had spent nearly every night staring out into the sky. The Academy was in a remote place. There were no glaring city lights to drown out the stars.

Even then, she knew that her destiny would lie amongst them, one day.

Although she certainly couldn't have predicted the path that brought her there.

--

"What are you doing?" Carth asked curiously.

She pointed. "Look," she said, and traced out for him, against the blackness of space, the few constellations that she knew—the Spire, the Necklace, the Lovers—each star glittering at her like a diamond.

Carth laughed. He wrapped his arm around her waist; she leaned against him, and they stood there, before the window, contemplating the view. "Stargazing," he said. "The moment I have you back, you want to leave again."

It was a weak attempt at humor, but she appreciated it. "Men," she said teasingly. "I'm sure you have other things that you'd rather do."

He didn't immediately answer. When Revan glanced up at him, he looked sad, and a little forlorn. "Yeah," Carth said quietly. "Lots of things."

She kissed him. He had not been expecting it, but after a startled moment he put his arms around her and kissed her back; she hadn't known it could be like this—this love, this easy affection, this loyalty and faith of his that she probably didn't deserve.

But she was grateful for it.

They kissed there, before the wide windows that looked out into the edges of space, and the world shuddered around her and Revan thought—_well, maybe it had been worth it, after all, if I could have him_—

Carth pulled away. There was an urgency in his dark eyes, even as he attempted a lopsided smile. "Tell me you love me," he said.

Revan laughed. "I love you," she said, and she meant it; it was the first emotion she had felt in so long, and she was pleased that it was such a pleasant one, though there was a great echoing emptiness within her that nothing could ever take away.

She couldn't give a name to that emptiness. Regret, perhaps. She would live with it the rest of her life.

"Let's sit," she told him.

"I thought you wanted to look at the stars?"

Revan gestured to the other side of the room. "We can see them just as well from there," she told him, sliding down against the wall until she was sitting on the floor. "There's plenty of windows that way."

"So there is," Carth remarked, sitting down beside her and taking her hand. The world shook again, and he said, "Revan—"

She didn't deserve him, she really didn't—faithfulness and loyalty and love should have more of a reward than _her_—but she squeezed his hand and said, "It's all right."

And, because she didn't know how she could ever possibly make it up to him, she said again (a little helplessly), "I love you."

Carth turned to look at her. "Come here," he said gently, tugging her toward him. She went. He put his arm around her and she curled up against him; he was warm, and she could hear the steady pulse of his heart underneath his shirt.

"I didn't know what I could have offered you," Carth said, "that made you choose me—but I'm glad you did."

Love and affection and loyalty—or an even greater regret she could never forget and never heal? It had been a surprisingly easy decision, at the end. "Me too," she said. And then, pointing: "Look, that's the part of the Beta Messorius cluster you can see from Kashyyyk, the Wookies call it the Great Tree—"

And they looked together—across the empty, echoing length of the command deck, past Bastila's crumpled body lying on the floor, past the spires of the Star Forge and the steady incessant pummeling of the Republic guns and the streaking beams of light that were the laser shots—out into the endless, infinite stars.

* * *

A/N: Ok, so there was a bit of a bait and switch with the summary--but I thought the premise was cool (although people probably won't get it if they haven't seen the cut content)! This is based off one of the cut endings, where Revan turns to the dark side, but all the way at the end Carth comes to the Star Forge and redeems her...you can watch the clip on youtube though won't let me post the link.

You can add it into your game with a mod. Anyway, Revan and Carth both die at the end, which I thought was the Ending of Awesome. Such a pity they didn't implement it.


End file.
